Comments (2)

Set in the context of transport improvements, the A34 has been a tremendous success. Like many others from the midlands, we used to endure an 8 hour journey for the 200 mile trip to the south coast for our annual holidays. Improved only a little by travelling at silly o'clock! The A34 now means that journey, on a good day, is around 4 hours drive time!

However, set against the misery for the many families that have lost loved ones and the resulting frustration and inconvenience for those caught up in the chaos, the road hardly deserves any plaudits!

Travelling in the UK has become a big gamble! Thankfully, essential journeys are now rare, but yesterday was one of those! Planning to get to my destination at a reasonable time, late morning, and allowing five hours for the 185 miles to Portsmouth, M1,A43,M40 and A34, an early start and a generous time allowance would make for an easy return trip during the day! No big rush, nice, easy driving. Oh how wrong could I be?

3 hours and I'd only just made it to the A34. No worries though! Traffic flowing OK, just the usual right hand lane delays caused by speeding drivers having to brake heavily for the lorry drivers doing the 3 mile overtake! So with a little patience and right foot control, keeping moving was not too much of an issue, and the average speed was up in the high 50s! Not quick but that came to an abrupt halt come near Newbury, with another overturned lorry closing both north and southbound carriageways!

Now I've noted a number of critical comments about the length of time to clear up these incidents, however, collision investigation is now a detailed and painstaking process. Far more thorough than that I had at my disposal investigating what we used to call RTAs years ago. No fragment of debris or mark in the road or anywhere else, goes unrecorded, photographed and surveyed now! All helps build an understanding of causation, demanded by coroners when a death is under investigation!....an
d then there's the need to move potentially unsafe cargo and severely damaged vehicles, often without causing additional damage if further forensic examination is needed!

So while I am no less frustrated by delays than any other driver, I do appreciate there's a job needs to be done!

It does seem that the A34 has a particularly poor safety record. On my rare journeys down that road, I've experienced roughly half being disrupted by incidents on the road requiring carriageway closures. So yesterday was not a surprise and not too many alternatives, as the M25 is never an attractive first choice!

The diversions around the A34 chaos yesterday were obviously suffering gridlock, so sitting it out meant the planned journey time was a extended by almost 3 hours. The return journey, A3/M25 and M1 was necessary, as it was clear the northbound chaos was going to take some hours to clear. But it was kind to me, and three hours drive time made for an easy journey!

So what's to be done? I know there'll be highway planners talking carriageway widening. Others will want road freight shifting to rail. But drivers, transport companies could do more! Most problems on the roads are due to excess speed and inattention. This requires education and enforcement. There has never been as much traffic on our roads, but policing that environment has become a residual issue for chief constables, more concerned with terrorism and domestic violence! The number of dedicated roads policing officers is at an all time low and the only time you really see officers in any numbers is when they're closing roads or investigating the loss of another life!

Drivers could slow down, plan better, have much lower expectations of journey times. Yes your BMW can do 100mph with ease, but it's rarely safe and always illegal! If you can maintain the speed limit on a motorway or main trunk road, you can think yourself lucky! Lorry drivers can help by not trying to overtake on gradients! A mobile road block with two LGV for a couple of miles...yes it does happen, it did yesterday too, at least a handful of times!....creates slowing and braking vehicles behind. The concertina effect will stop vehicles in the carriageway....and that results in accidents!

Time to police the road environment again! It's cheaper than many hundreds of millions of extra lanes and better than lost lives!

Set in the context of transport improvements, the A34 has been a tremendous success. Like many others from the midlands, we used to endure an 8 hour journey for the 200 mile trip to the south coast for our annual holidays. Improved only a little by travelling at silly o'clock! The A34 now means that journey, on a good day, is around 4 hours drive time!
However, set against the misery for the many families that have lost loved ones and the resulting frustration and inconvenience for those caught up in the chaos, the road hardly deserves any plaudits!
Travelling in the UK has become a big gamble! Thankfully, essential journeys are now rare, but yesterday was one of those! Planning to get to my destination at a reasonable time, late morning, and allowing five hours for the 185 miles to Portsmouth, M1,A43,M40 and A34, an early start and a generous time allowance would make for an easy return trip during the day! No big rush, nice, easy driving. Oh how wrong could I be?
3 hours and I'd only just made it to the A34. No worries though! Traffic flowing OK, just the usual right hand lane delays caused by speeding drivers having to brake heavily for the lorry drivers doing the 3 mile overtake! So with a little patience and right foot control, keeping moving was not too much of an issue, and the average speed was up in the high 50s! Not quick but that came to an abrupt halt come near Newbury, with another overturned lorry closing both north and southbound carriageways!
Now I've noted a number of critical comments about the length of time to clear up these incidents, however, collision investigation is now a detailed and painstaking process. Far more thorough than that I had at my disposal investigating what we used to call RTAs years ago. No fragment of debris or mark in the road or anywhere else, goes unrecorded, photographed and surveyed now! All helps build an understanding of causation, demanded by coroners when a death is under investigation!....an
d then there's the need to move potentially unsafe cargo and severely damaged vehicles, often without causing additional damage if further forensic examination is needed!
So while I am no less frustrated by delays than any other driver, I do appreciate there's a job needs to be done!
It does seem that the A34 has a particularly poor safety record. On my rare journeys down that road, I've experienced roughly half being disrupted by incidents on the road requiring carriageway closures. So yesterday was not a surprise and not too many alternatives, as the M25 is never an attractive first choice!
The diversions around the A34 chaos yesterday were obviously suffering gridlock, so sitting it out meant the planned journey time was a extended by almost 3 hours. The return journey, A3/M25 and M1 was necessary, as it was clear the northbound chaos was going to take some hours to clear. But it was kind to me, and three hours drive time made for an easy journey!
So what's to be done? I know there'll be highway planners talking carriageway widening. Others will want road freight shifting to rail. But drivers, transport companies could do more! Most problems on the roads are due to excess speed and inattention. This requires education and enforcement. There has never been as much traffic on our roads, but policing that environment has become a residual issue for chief constables, more concerned with terrorism and domestic violence! The number of dedicated roads policing officers is at an all time low and the only time you really see officers in any numbers is when they're closing roads or investigating the loss of another life!
Drivers could slow down, plan better, have much lower expectations of journey times. Yes your BMW can do 100mph with ease, but it's rarely safe and always illegal! If you can maintain the speed limit on a motorway or main trunk road, you can think yourself lucky! Lorry drivers can help by not trying to overtake on gradients! A mobile road block with two LGV for a couple of miles...yes it does happen, it did yesterday too, at least a handful of times!....creates slowing and braking vehicles behind. The concertina effect will stop vehicles in the carriageway....and that results in accidents!
Time to police the road environment again! It's cheaper than many hundreds of millions of extra lanes and better than lost lives!Derbyshire Traveller

Derbyshire Traveller wrote:
Set in the context of transport improvements, the A34 has been a tremendous success. Like many others from the midlands, we used to endure an 8 hour journey for the 200 mile trip to the south coast for our annual holidays. Improved only a little by travelling at silly o'clock! The A34 now means that journey, on a good day, is around 4 hours drive time!

However, set against the misery for the many families that have lost loved ones and the resulting frustration and inconvenience for those caught up in the chaos, the road hardly deserves any plaudits!

Travelling in the UK has become a big gamble! Thankfully, essential journeys are now rare, but yesterday was one of those! Planning to get to my destination at a reasonable time, late morning, and allowing five hours for the 185 miles to Portsmouth, M1,A43,M40 and A34, an early start and a generous time allowance would make for an easy return trip during the day! No big rush, nice, easy driving. Oh how wrong could I be?

3 hours and I'd only just made it to the A34. No worries though! Traffic flowing OK, just the usual right hand lane delays caused by speeding drivers having to brake heavily for the lorry drivers doing the 3 mile overtake! So with a little patience and right foot control, keeping moving was not too much of an issue, and the average speed was up in the high 50s! Not quick but that came to an abrupt halt come near Newbury, with another overturned lorry closing both north and southbound carriageways!

Now I've noted a number of critical comments about the length of time to clear up these incidents, however, collision investigation is now a detailed and painstaking process. Far more thorough than that I had at my disposal investigating what we used to call RTAs years ago. No fragment of debris or mark in the road or anywhere else, goes unrecorded, photographed and surveyed now! All helps build an understanding of causation, demanded by coroners when a death is under investigation!....an

d then there's the need to move potentially unsafe cargo and severely damaged vehicles, often without causing additional damage if further forensic examination is needed!

So while I am no less frustrated by delays than any other driver, I do appreciate there's a job needs to be done!

It does seem that the A34 has a particularly poor safety record. On my rare journeys down that road, I've experienced roughly half being disrupted by incidents on the road requiring carriageway closures. So yesterday was not a surprise and not too many alternatives, as the M25 is never an attractive first choice!

The diversions around the A34 chaos yesterday were obviously suffering gridlock, so sitting it out meant the planned journey time was a extended by almost 3 hours. The return journey, A3/M25 and M1 was necessary, as it was clear the northbound chaos was going to take some hours to clear. But it was kind to me, and three hours drive time made for an easy journey!

So what's to be done? I know there'll be highway planners talking carriageway widening. Others will want road freight shifting to rail. But drivers, transport companies could do more! Most problems on the roads are due to excess speed and inattention. This requires education and enforcement. There has never been as much traffic on our roads, but policing that environment has become a residual issue for chief constables, more concerned with terrorism and domestic violence! The number of dedicated roads policing officers is at an all time low and the only time you really see officers in any numbers is when they're closing roads or investigating the loss of another life!

Drivers could slow down, plan better, have much lower expectations of journey times. Yes your BMW can do 100mph with ease, but it's rarely safe and always illegal! If you can maintain the speed limit on a motorway or main trunk road, you can think yourself lucky! Lorry drivers can help by not trying to overtake on gradients! A mobile road block with two LGV for a couple of miles...yes it does happen, it did yesterday too, at least a handful of times!....creates slowing and braking vehicles behind. The concertina effect will stop vehicles in the carriageway....and that results in accidents!

Time to police the road environment again! It's cheaper than many hundreds of millions of extra lanes and better than lost lives!

Nice summary of the issues Derbyshire Traveller. Being previously involved with Oxfordshire Highways, I do know the county is too reliant on a few key roads for moving people and freight through the county. Sometime ago we did investigate upgrading the A34 to 3 lanes, north and south between the M4 and the M40, but came to the conclusion that it would only be another 10 years before the road was congested again. The A34 is not a problem that the county highways can resolve itself; it needs strategic planning from the government about how we can move people and freight between the midlands and the south coast. Building more roads isn’t the answer on its own but a new north/south rail line would give a substantial new transport capacity.

[quote][p][bold]Derbyshire Traveller[/bold] wrote:
Set in the context of transport improvements, the A34 has been a tremendous success. Like many others from the midlands, we used to endure an 8 hour journey for the 200 mile trip to the south coast for our annual holidays. Improved only a little by travelling at silly o'clock! The A34 now means that journey, on a good day, is around 4 hours drive time!
However, set against the misery for the many families that have lost loved ones and the resulting frustration and inconvenience for those caught up in the chaos, the road hardly deserves any plaudits!
Travelling in the UK has become a big gamble! Thankfully, essential journeys are now rare, but yesterday was one of those! Planning to get to my destination at a reasonable time, late morning, and allowing five hours for the 185 miles to Portsmouth, M1,A43,M40 and A34, an early start and a generous time allowance would make for an easy return trip during the day! No big rush, nice, easy driving. Oh how wrong could I be?
3 hours and I'd only just made it to the A34. No worries though! Traffic flowing OK, just the usual right hand lane delays caused by speeding drivers having to brake heavily for the lorry drivers doing the 3 mile overtake! So with a little patience and right foot control, keeping moving was not too much of an issue, and the average speed was up in the high 50s! Not quick but that came to an abrupt halt come near Newbury, with another overturned lorry closing both north and southbound carriageways!
Now I've noted a number of critical comments about the length of time to clear up these incidents, however, collision investigation is now a detailed and painstaking process. Far more thorough than that I had at my disposal investigating what we used to call RTAs years ago. No fragment of debris or mark in the road or anywhere else, goes unrecorded, photographed and surveyed now! All helps build an understanding of causation, demanded by coroners when a death is under investigation!....an
d then there's the need to move potentially unsafe cargo and severely damaged vehicles, often without causing additional damage if further forensic examination is needed!
So while I am no less frustrated by delays than any other driver, I do appreciate there's a job needs to be done!
It does seem that the A34 has a particularly poor safety record. On my rare journeys down that road, I've experienced roughly half being disrupted by incidents on the road requiring carriageway closures. So yesterday was not a surprise and not too many alternatives, as the M25 is never an attractive first choice!
The diversions around the A34 chaos yesterday were obviously suffering gridlock, so sitting it out meant the planned journey time was a extended by almost 3 hours. The return journey, A3/M25 and M1 was necessary, as it was clear the northbound chaos was going to take some hours to clear. But it was kind to me, and three hours drive time made for an easy journey!
So what's to be done? I know there'll be highway planners talking carriageway widening. Others will want road freight shifting to rail. But drivers, transport companies could do more! Most problems on the roads are due to excess speed and inattention. This requires education and enforcement. There has never been as much traffic on our roads, but policing that environment has become a residual issue for chief constables, more concerned with terrorism and domestic violence! The number of dedicated roads policing officers is at an all time low and the only time you really see officers in any numbers is when they're closing roads or investigating the loss of another life!
Drivers could slow down, plan better, have much lower expectations of journey times. Yes your BMW can do 100mph with ease, but it's rarely safe and always illegal! If you can maintain the speed limit on a motorway or main trunk road, you can think yourself lucky! Lorry drivers can help by not trying to overtake on gradients! A mobile road block with two LGV for a couple of miles...yes it does happen, it did yesterday too, at least a handful of times!....creates slowing and braking vehicles behind. The concertina effect will stop vehicles in the carriageway....and that results in accidents!
Time to police the road environment again! It's cheaper than many hundreds of millions of extra lanes and better than lost lives![/p][/quote]Nice summary of the issues Derbyshire Traveller. Being previously involved with Oxfordshire Highways, I do know the county is too reliant on a few key roads for moving people and freight through the county. Sometime ago we did investigate upgrading the A34 to 3 lanes, north and south between the M4 and the M40, but came to the conclusion that it would only be another 10 years before the road was congested again. The A34 is not a problem that the county highways can resolve itself; it needs strategic planning from the government about how we can move people and freight between the midlands and the south coast. Building more roads isn’t the answer on its own but a new north/south rail line would give a substantial new transport capacity.TobyB1960